Ghost Estate

by William Wall

Seven years in the making, the themes of this book - politics, desire, terror, love, loss, and flight - have powerful resonance today, after Ireland's disastrous economic crash. It takes its title from the vast developments of surplus houses all over Ireland, built in the glory of the Celtic Tiger, and now eerily empty. William Wall is the author of two previous collections of poetry, four novels, and a volume of short fiction. He has won numerous prizes including the Patrick Kavanagh Award and the Listowel Writers' Week prize, and been nominated for many more, including the Man Booker Prize.

146 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2011

Reviews

[Emprise · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Wall’s Ghost Estate is a sustained and scathing threnody for the poet’s native Ireland, as poem after poem ululates the death of culture by probing the myriad economic and democratic failures that have befallen the Emerald Isle in the wake of our global recession. There are several selections that offer welcome counterpoint to this bleak subject, such as reflections on the poet’s mother and travels to Italy, but Ghost Estate maintains a visceral mournfulness that speaks to the depth of Wall’s grief and endures as a wrenching testament to his harrowing civic vision...

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